Man has always been fascinated by weather, especially violent weather. The tornado is the supreme example of violent weather. People of all walks of life are fascinated by tornados and enjoy watching TV news, movies and pictures of them. However, as Benjamin Franklin stated over 200 years ago, "Some people are weatherwise, but most people are otherwise." Very few people have any understanding of how tornados work.
It is desirable to satisfy the fascination people have with tornados by educating and entertaining them with a tornado model on a safe, easy to understand scale. Furthermore, it is desirable to add a practical application to this model by utilizing water aerosol comprising the tornado to humidify the surrounding room air.
Humidifying room air helps to alleviate health ailments associated with extremely dry air, which commonly occurs in homes and businesses located in dry or cold climates. Conventional humidifiers use ultrasonic aerosol generators or thermal evaporators to generate water aerosol which are subsequently blown into the room air.
The present invention provides for the effective display of a small scale tornado-like model while also efficiently humidifying the surrounding room. The present invention also provides for scaling so that a display/humidifier can be constructed to meet a wide variety of display and humidifying needs. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, a system for generating small scale tornado-like air flow patterns is used to deliver water aerosol to room air for the purposes of humidifying the air, while educating the user on the workings of tornadoes and entertaining the user by allowing interaction with the tornado flow.